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110 years ago 1914
County engineer A.W.
Mar completed the survey for the extension of the permanent highway west from Newport to a point on the hill above Penrith.
Professor E.M. Blevins, new head of Newport Schools, arrived to replace Professor L.H. King.
100 years ago 1924
A mail sack containing canceled checks stolen a year prior from the Great Northern Railroad building was found in a building that was being torn down.
The Pend Oreille River was two feet below normal low water. Water was so low in the Priest River that a log drive was delayed.
Deputy Game Warden Black planted 900,000 trout fry in county lakes from the Sullivan Creek Hatchery.
90 years ago 1934
A forest fire threatened valuable white pine timber holdings of the Diamond Match Co. in a region west of Calispel Valley.
No rain was reported in the month of July. Temperatures were as high as 105 degrees.
80 years ago 1944
The Newport Boy Scout troop was involved in a nationwide paper drive to help the war effort.
At the Rex Theater, Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert were starring in “No Time For Love.”
70 years ago 1954
Earl T. Norman, an Eastern Washington College of Education graduate, was named athletic director for Newport High School.
Construction at Albeni Falls and Box Canyon dams was going on.
Spillways were being constructed at Box Canyon, while machinists and electricians were working on the turbines at Albeni Falls.
60 years ago 1964
A ring lost by a Priest River man while he was swimming in Diamond Lake in 1922 was found by a diver.
Rain and cold weather reduced attendance on the second night of the Newport rodeo after a near record crowd on opening night.
Pik Kwik advertised eight cantaloupes for $1 and peaches at 19 cents a pound.
50 years ago 1974
Close to $10,000 worth of damage resulted to the Nelson Lumber west of Priest River when a fire broke out in the re-saw building.
It was announced that Oct. 16 would Pend Oreille County Day at Expo ’74 in Spokane.
40 years ago 1984
The charred remains of the Cusick Mini Mart, which went up in flames, and the fire’s sole survivor, a telephone booth, caused concerns among the town’s residents that they would have to travel to Newport for their grocery purchases. The store had been a downtown landmark since 1906.
Atkinson Construction work neared completion on the exterior block work of Newport’s new city library. The recent good weather had kept the project ahead of schedule.
30 years ago 1994
A crowd of about 125 stood back and listened as 22 contestants bellowed poetry across a hayfield at the first annual Deer Valley Poetry Hollering contest held in Willy Hutchinson’s hayfield.
A Spokane college student who yelled William Carlos Williamson’s “Danse Rousse” at the judges won the contest and a $100 prize. Newport’s Anne Becke won second for her loud rendition of “If Shakespeare had Written Humpty Dumpty.” The judge broke a tie for third by dividing the two contestants’ height by their shoe sizes.
Sheriff’s deputies apprehended three juveniles and two adults inside Pend Oreille grocery in Cusick with candy, beer and cigarettes. Two of the juveniles, aged 12 and 15 were turned over to their parents and a 15-yearold was sent to juvenile detention. The two adults were arrested for burglary. Deputies had been to the store the day before to investigate a break in in which it was unclear
A tree crushed this trailer at the Moonlight RV Park on Highway 211 in this 2014 photo.
whether anything had been stolen. They staked out the store the next night and made the arrests.
20 years ago 2004
Three men arrested for trying to smuggle more than 400 pounds of BC bud into the country near Priest Lake pleaded guilty to reduced charges of felony conspiracy to deliver marijuana. One man was arrested in a rental vehicle in the parking lot of the Snow Park on Highway 57 after a motion detector went off at the border was triggered. The other two were arrested riding snowmobiles and pulling sleds packed with marijuana.
Pend Oreille County Jail inmates worked 3,870 hours and community service laborers worked 5,489 hours the previous year, according to a report released by the Washington Jail Industries Board. Inmates also worked in the jail in food services and doing janitorial work and laundry.
10 years ago 2014
Hundreds of west Bonner County residents were without power the week prior after a swift wind storm swept through the region. Nearly 350 Northern Lights Inc. customers lost power in the Edgemere area south of Priest River, and nearly 80 customers didn’t have power between Priest River and Priest Lake. Avista customers in Priest River lost power, and nearly 20 were still without power Friday, July 25. Three people suffered injuries – life threatening for at least one – at Diamond Lake.
Four were in the race for U.S. Representative from the 5th Congressional District, including incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Tom Horne, Joe Pakootas and Dave Wilson.
